Where does rice come from?
Kids ASK! about Science & Technology
Rice comes from the rice plant, which produces the edible grain.
Read these fast facts to find out more about rice:
- It is a staple food for half of the world’s population.
- The rice plant, a type of grass with narrow and tapered leaves, can grow from 60 to 180 cm tall.
- Rice is grown in more than 100 countries and it is particularly productive in tropical regions with high rainfall.
- Rice grains are ready for harvest in three to six months.
- Raw rice may be ground into flour for many uses, including the making of beverages such as amazake, horchata, rice milk and sake.
- Ground, boiled rice can be made into glue.
- Edible paper, used to wrap spring rolls and other Asian foods, is made from rice flour.
I remember singing this song when I was a child – “Planting rice is never fun, bent from morn to set of sun, cannot stand and cannot sit, cannot rest a little bit….”. Rice cultivation is labour-intensive and the price of rice has risen sharply in the past few months due to rice shortage. Therefore, we should appreciate every grain of rice that we put into our mouths.
Sources of information:
1) www.kidsregen.org/howTo.php?section=celeb&ID=10
2) encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761569224/Rice.html
3) en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rice&oldid=222606987
Books for thoughts:
Bread, rice and pasta by Susan Martineu and Helen James
Publisher: London : Franklin Watts, 2006.
Call Number: J 641.3 MAR
The biography of rice by John Zronik
Publisher: New York, .N.Y : Crabtree Pub. Co., c2006.
Call Number: J 633.1 ZRO
All book covers were extracted from www.bn.com.
Posted by Ms Adeline Tan
Librarian
Children’s Services
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